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Gear mechanics of paladins as tanks
The success of a tank depends highly upon his gear. Fortunately, gear for tanking Paladins is mostly the same as gear for tanking Death Knights and Warriors, so it is not difficult to find. Basics of Tanking The job of a tank can basically be divided into two things: #Produce a sufficient level of threat so that the mobs keep attacking him; #Stay alive with enough mitigation and large amount of health. These are also the basic factors concerned when choosing tankadin gear. Gear Mechanics: Threat Generation Strength is the primary stat a tankadin needs for threat production. The amount of strength needed depends on your group's DPS. Other stats that improve threat production include stamina, expertise rating, hit rating, block chance and block value. (Hit rating also affects Righteous Defense.) Haste rating is mostly useless because of skill cooldowns. Tankadins no longer need to stack Intellect or mp5 in order to have mana, and there is no level 80 tank gear that has either one. Gear Mechanics: Survivability Becoming uncrittable is the foremost concern for level 80 tankadins gearing up for raids. Paladins need at least 540 defense, to be uncrittable by raid bosses, and 535 defense to be uncrittable in heroics. 540 defense can be achieve by wearing enough gear with defense rating. A naked level 80 Paladin has 400 defense, and will need 689 defense rating to reach 540 defense. After becoming uncrittable, the next priority is more health and armor, and then block and avoidance. Lastly, some items have block value (not block rating) on them. When we block an attack, a certain fixed amount of damage is "blocked". This amount is the sum of "block" on your shield and block value from other items, as well as contribution from strength. Block value is good to have but not strictly necessary unless when AOE tanking. Raid bosses usually hit for several thousand damage, so blocking a few hundred is not going to help much. On the other hand, when AOE tanking trash mobs, you are getting more frequent but weaker hits. In such case, damage prevented by block becomes quite significant. Therefore, some tankadins would keep a set with high avoidance and stamina for boss encounters and another with high block value (and block rating) for trash mobs. Easily Attainable Pre-Heroic Tanking Gear Gearing up your tankadin is much easier in WotLK than TBC. There is a great Blacksmithing set and with the new Championing system grinding reps is extremely easy and has some very good tanking rewards as well. Below is a list of some easy to obtain yet good tanking gear and the specific enchant: Head: (blacksmith crafted) Enchant: (Argent Crusade revered) Neck: (Utgarde Pinnacle Shoulders: (blacksmith crafted) Enchant: (The Sons of Hodir honored) Back: (The Wyrmrest Accord honored) Enchant: Chest: (blacksmith crafted) or (The Wyrmrest Accord revered) Enchant: Wrists: (blacksmith crafted) Enchant: Hands: or (both blacksmith crafted) or (Kirin Tor exalted) Enchant: Belt: (blacksmith crafted) Leggings: or (both blacksmith crafted) Enchant: Feet: (blacksmith crafted) or (Knights of the Ebon Blade revered) or (The Wyrmrest Accord revered) Enchant: Rings: (Gundrak) or (The Oculus) Trinkets: (Halls of Lightning) Weapon: (Halls of Lightning) or (Utgarde Pinnacle, heroic) or (quest reward) Enchant: Shield: (blacksmith crafted) Enchant: Libram: until (Badge of Justice reward) until (Venture Coin reward) Gems: Red: or ; or if the socket bonus is no good) Yellow: or ; or ; or if the socket bonus is no good) Blue: or ; or Meta: ; ; The above list does not include any boss drops or Emblem of Heroism rewards except for and . Therefore, it should be reasonably easy for anyone to collect most of them. Together with some random drops from the 5-man instance bosses, uncrittability can be achieved without much difficulty. It is also worth noting . These are engineer only items and require a , but a Frozen Orb can be bought on the Auction House, or if you can run some heroics you may get one. This head piece is comparable to the Tier 7 10-Man, and so can be used in the early end-game. Easily Attainable Pre-Raid Tanking Gear Once you have the above set you should dive into heroics. There are many great gear upgrades, including some epics, that will get you well on your way to tanking Naxxramas successfully. Head: (Gundrak Heroic) or (Engineer crafted) Enchant: (Argent Crusade Revered) Neck: (25xEmblem of Heroism) or (Jewelcraft Created) Shoulders: (Halls of Stone) or (Halls of Lightning Heroic) Enchant: (The Sons of Hodir Honored) Back: (The Wyrmrest Accord honored) or (Nexus Heroic) Enchant: Formula: Enchant Cloak - Titanweave or Formula: Enchant Cloak - Major Agility Chest: (The Wyrmrest Accord Revered) Enchant: Formula: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats or Formula: Enchant Chest - Super Health or Formula: Enchant Chest - Greater Defense Wrists: (Ahn'kahet Heroic) Enchant: Formula: Enchant Bracer - Major Stamina (Release 3.0.8) Hands: (Violet Hold Heroic) or (Kirin Tor Exalted) Enchant: Formula: Enchant Gloves - Armsman Belt: (Utgarde Pinnacle Heroic) (40xEmblem of Heroism) Leggings: (Violet Hold Heroic) or (Argent Crusade Honored) Enchant: Feet: (The Wyrmrest Accord revered) Enchant: Formula: Enchant Boots - Greater Fortitude Rings: (Gundrak) or (Halls of Stone Heroic) or (The Oculus Heroic) or (Drak'Tharon Heroic) Note: Rings should be chosen based on your need of defense. If you are capped with only one ring equipped then get the Keystone Great-Ring. If not, then use the rings that get you capped. Trinkets: (Halls of Lightning) and (Azjol'Nerub Heroic) Weapon: (Utgarde Pinnacle Heroic) Enchant: Shield: (Culling of Stratholme Heroic) or (Blacksmith Created) or (35xEmblem of Heroism) Enchant: Formula: Enchant Shield - Exceptional Stamina or Formula: Enchant Shield - Defense Libram: (Venture Coin Reward) or (15xEmblem of Heroism) Gems: Red: or ; or if the socket bonus is no good) Yellow: or ; or ; or if the socket bonus is no good) Blue: or ; or Meta: ; ; Other Tips *During certain raid encounters, high resistance of specific schools of magic is needed. (e.g. Hydross the Unstable) Therefore, you need to replace the usual equipment with high-resistance gear. Some fights in 5-man instances also benefit from resistance gear, although it is not strictly necessary. Please see the related link for a list of resistance gear. Sample Sets Useful links Maintankadin Forum: Gear Section A good place to discuss anything about tankadin gear Beginning Level 80 Plate Tank Gear Frequently updated listing of plate tank gear, that can be obtained without dungeon boss drops. Advanced Level 80 Plate Tank Gear Frequently updated listing of plate tank gear, that can be obtained from dungeons (via boss drops, badges, etc.). List: Tanking Gear Uncrushability Value (TBC) A handy list of avoidance/blocking provided by tanking gear Resistance Gear (TBC) A complete list of resistance gear Warcrafter.net Sandbox A useful tool for planning your gear! : Category:Gear guides Category:Paladins Category:World of Warcraft equipable items